Developer Plans Scripps Ranch Tech Park With Creative Office Amenities
Two growing San Diego economic drivers, biotech and defense, are boosting real estate development, notes Murphy Development Co EVP Kaitlin M. Arduino, an expert panelist at our San Diego’s Annual Office Forum event on June 23, whose company plans to build the Scripps Ranch Tech Park.
Kaitlin is pictured here with her hubby, Mike, and some locals while on her honeymoon last October in Fiji.
While build-to-suit tenants are preferred, with growing demand for office and R&D space, she tells us her company is considering building on spec and will likely kick off development at Scripps Ranch Tech Park with 164k SF of office/flex space on 12 acres. This project provides an opportunity for large floor plates in multiple buildings ranging from 30k SF to 120k SF to accommodate R&D, office and tech tenants.
Murphy Development purchased 31 acres in late 2014, where it will develop five lots. The project’s appeal is complemented by an additional 24 acres of dedicated amenity and open space. The property, which was originally slated for a 1M SF Intel Corp campus, is fully entitled for two- and three-story office or R&D buildings. The campus design provides a flexible configuration of contemporary facilities (pictured above), ranging from 60k SF to 240k SF. Kaitlin notes the design’s flexibility offers the ability to create high floor-to-ceiling height for lab space and dock-high configuration for truck-active R&D facilities.
Pictured below is Building E, which features an indoor/outdoor organic bistro and herb garden.
“Not all Millennials want to live in Downtown,” Kaitlin points out, noting this project will provide amenities attractive to this group. “We’re lucky to have built-in amenities, but plan to add even more,” she says, noting par course cross-training equipment will be placed alongside existing nature trails throughout the open space.
An existing on-site fishing pond and soccer field will provide lunch-break recreational activities, and Lake Miramar, which has a five-mile running loop, kayaking and park areas, is within walking distance, she adds. An on-site fitness center will be added, as well as an organic bistro, café and amphitheater. Indoor and outdoor seating will provide gathering spaces for socializing, and roll-up doors will be installed to connect workspaces to the outdoors.
Pictured above is Scripps Ranch Tech Park's Building A, which features a café.
Most biotech companies are on the Torrey Pines Mesa, Kaitlin says, and the firm hopes to attract tenants from this sector to the Scripps Ranch development. Dart NeuroScience relocated a few years ago to a Scripps Ranch site just north of the Murphy Development site. Despite significant increases in building costs, rents at the Scripps Ranch Tech Park will be competitive with other central markets, with rents somewhere in the $2 to $3/SF range depending on use, compared to Torrey Pines and UTC, where Class-A rents are upwards of $4/SF, she says.
Hear more from Kaitlin and our other office developers at San Diego’s Annual Office Forum on June 23, beginning at 7:30am with breakfast and networking at the Westin San Diego, 400 Broadway, in Downtown. Sign up here.
